The present invention relates to a touchscreen device, a method of operating the touchscreen device and a computer program product for performing the method of operating the touchscreen device.
Touchscreen devices are widely used, particularly in modern smartphones, which often have a touchscreen that outputs a display to the user and also receives inputs from the user, allowing the user to interact with the smartphone's operating system and with applications being run by the smartphones. Different touchscreen technologies are available, some of which support the use of a finger touching the touchscreen and others that, in addition or alternatively to a finger touch, allow a stylus or pen to be used when interacting with the touchscreen. Touchscreens generally support multiple touches on the touchscreen and can detect different types of gesture beyond a simple touch, such as a swipe by a user's finger across a touchscreen.
When a user of a touchscreen device is rapidly touching the screen, such as when typing or playing a game, if a pop-up window is displayed on the touchscreen it is easy for the user to accidentally dismiss the message or press an undesired option. This is a problem because either the user dismisses the message before having had time to read the content of the pop-up window, or the user inadvertently selects one of the options on the pop-up window which could cause an unwanted action to happen, such as taking the user to a different location or application, interrupting their current activity or losing text that is being typed at that point by the user. A common example is the appearance of a pop-up window which notifies the user that the phone battery is low in power and supplies the user with different options relating to this notification such as switching to a low power mode or accessing a systems menu that shows the power being consumed by current applications. If the user is typing on the touchscreen when this pop-up window appears, they may well select an option that takes the user away from the current application, which is disruptive and can lead to the loss of material being currently typed by the user.